Stem Cells Advantages And Disadvantages

522 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of stem cells in the medical field

Stem cells are becoming increasingly well known as a medical treatment helping to regrow skin back, cure bone marrow issues and heal cancer. This essay will firstly explain stem cells and how scientists/doctors are trying to use them to cure disease and injuries. Although the use of stem cells has many benefits, this essay also discusses the limitations of their use. Finally, this essay will discuss how stem cells interact with economic and ethnical factors. According to the Stem Cell Therapies Learning Centre, a stem cell is blank cell, has no specific function, and can morph into any other type of cell when necessary. Amazingly, they can divide and repair in the body. There are three types of stem cells: • totipotent (which is a fertilised egg, the building block of other cells) • multi-potent (creates different types of cells in the body) • pluripotent (creates any type of cells except embryonic cells) Scientists and doctors are using stem cells to cure and attempt to cure a range of diseases and injuries. Stem cell therapy works to replace damaged, diseased, or malfunctioni...

Show More
Related

  • Duchenne Mascular Dystrophy Essay

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stem cell research: Stem cells are cells that are at an early stage of development. This means they have the ability to turn into any type of cell in the body. Some research is currently focusing on whether stem cells can be turned into muscle cells and used to regenerate damaged muscle tissue (American Thoracic Society Consensus Statement, 2004).

    Read More

  • Stem Cell Research

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    Because stem cells are essentially a blank slate, scientists are theoretically capable of growing any human tissue cell. There is enormous medical potential in this. Stem cell research is the next step in advancing the medical field. It is comparable to the discovery of penicillin or the inoculation for smallpox.

    Read More

  • The Government Should Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Research

    2402 Words  | 5 Pages

    Stem cell research began in 1956 when Dr. E Donnall Thomas performed the first bone marrow transplant (“Adult stem cells are not more promising,” 2007). Since that time, research has evolved into obtaining cells from a variety of tissues. According to stem cell research professors, Ariff Bongso and Eng Hin Lee (2005), “Stem cells are unspecialized cells in the human body that are capable of becoming cells, each with new specialized functions” (p. 2). Stem cells are in various adult tissues, such as bone marrow, the liver, the epidermis layer of skin, the central nervous system, and eyes. They are also in other sources, such as fetuses, umbilical cords, placentas, embryos, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are cells from adult tissues that have been reprogrammed to pluripotency. Most stem cells offer multipotent cells, which are sparse...

    Read More

  • The Ethical Considerations of Stem Cell research

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stem cells have the ability to transform into any kind of cell. These cells can divide and also replenish other cells in the body, such as muscle cells, brain cells, red blood cells, or they may just simply remain as stem cells. Stem cells are able to replicate even after long periods of dormancy. They naturally repair damaged tissues and can be experimentally induced to work with particular tissues and organs (NIH, 2013). There are three types of stem cells.

    Read More

  • Politics and Stem Cell Research

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    This report does a fairly comprehensive job on educating the public to the definition of stem cells, describing them as “a diverse group of remarkable multipotent cells that are relatively undifferentiated and unspecialized cells of the body.” Stem cells have the capacity for unlimited self-renewal and the possibility to produce differentiated descendant cell types. The main in...

    Read More

  • Stem Cells Essay

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stem cells help us to maintain and heal our bodies, as they are undifferentiated cells, their roles are not yet determined. They have the ability to become anything during early life and growth. Stem cells come from two sources, namely: embryonic stem cells (embryo’s formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development) and adult stem cells (see figure 3).

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Stem Cells

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 2013 about 580,350 Americans were projected to die of cancer, almost 1,600 people a day. Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the US, accounting for nearly 1 of every 4 deaths (Cancer Facts). Doctors and scientists are always trying to discover new ways to help battle cancer as well as other diseases. Doctors have tried everything from plants to radiation to try and destroy cancerous cells. Instead of destroying them Scientists and doctors are now trying to replace the old cancerous cells. In order to replace these cells they will need new cells. Stem cell research is the newest way doctors are trying to help with diseases. There are different types of stem cells. Stem cells are cells found primarily in embryos, and they have not yet taken on the characteristics of any particular type of cell, such as bone, muscle tissue or brain matter. The newest research being done is with embryotic stem cells. Embryotic Stem cells have been used in medical therapies to aid patients with many types of diseases; that being said it is imperative that we continue researching, practicing, and funding these medical advancements.

    Read More

  • Stem cell and polio research

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    Stem Cells are cells that scientist have began to try and use to help people. “In the mid 1800s it was discovered that cells were basically the building blocks of life and that some cells had the ability to produce other cells.” With the discovery of stem cells came the opening to a new area of development in what could be done with health and medicine of the world. Of course throughout history, stem cells have been a very heated subject between different groups of people who believe it is right or wrong. Some people believe that this form of research is against ethical or moral values. They too see this as being wrong because they view human embryos as a form of life. These cells are neutral cells that can be turned into any other one that is needed at the time. Stem cells can make more of themselves when they aren’t being used allowing them to be ready when something happens. In the human body, stem cells help repair the tissue that has been broken, torn, or lost. They help fix bones, heal abrasions, and even repair internal organs if needed. Scientist have the ability now to mani...

    Read More

  • Stem Cell Research - Embryonic Stem Cells Save Lives

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    Special cells that are taken from human embryos, called embryonic stem cells (ES cells), actually possess the power to save your life. These cells can serve many medical purposes and have the ability to benefit people in infinite ways.

    Read More

  • Stem Cell Research Essay

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper focuses on the benefits of stem cell research in the medical and nursing field. New technology is always being created to help us understand the way the human body works, as well as ways to help us improve diseased states in the body. Our bodies have the ability to proliferate or regrow cells when damage is done to the cells. Take for example the skin, when an abrasion or puncture to the skin causes loss of our skin cells, the body has its own way of causing those cells to regrow. The liver, bone marrow, heart, brain, and muscle all have cells that are capable of differentiating into cells of that same type. These are called stem cells, and are a new medical tool that is helping regrow vital organs in our body to help us survive. Stem cells can come from adult cells, or the blastocyst of the embryo. The cells that come from these are undifferentiated, and can be specialized into certain cell types, making them available for many damaged tissues in the body. While using stem cells in the body is a main use, they are also being used to help doctors understand how disease processes start. By culturing these cells in the lab and watching them develop into muscles, nerve cells, or other tissues, researchers are able to see how diseases affect these cells and possibly discover ways to correct these diseases. While researchers have come very far in using stem cells, there are still many controversies to overcome when using these cells.

    Read More

  • Pros and Cons of Embryonic Stem Cell Research

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most people are against Embryonic Stem Cell research mainly because they consider it unethical to use aborted fetuses for research. The two main issues concerning the research are the ethics (Cons) and the benefits (Pros). In any scientific case, ethics must always be considered. But the use of fetuses is something that is of the utmost importance. The costs are generally measured based off of people’s feelings, morals, and knowledge about the subject up for debate. The use of aborted fetuses for stem cell research may have many positive outcomes that can come of it, but many negative outcomes as well; If using aborted fetuses for research can, in the near future, save lives, then it is a research that should be supported, even though some people may see this type of research as something on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from the way they view abortion.

    Read More

  • Stem Cells: The Future of Medicine

    3294 Words  | 7 Pages

    “Top Ten Things to Know About Stem Cell Treatments.” Www.closerlookatstemcells.org ISSCR. Web 1 November 2013

    Read More

  • Federal Funds Should Be Used for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

    1400 Words  | 3 Pages

    The wide range of prospective uses for stem cells could greatly improve the health and wellbeing of many people.  In stem cell treatments, undifferentiated cells are programmed to form specific cells, which can then be transplanted to the afflicted area.  Stems cells can possibly treat afflictions including “Alzheimer’s diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis” (“Stem Cell Basics”).  Another important use is in drug testing. Drugs can be tested on stem cells that develop into the target tissue before using it on human test subjects, which improves safety.  Finally, transplantation of organs created from stem cells could eliminate the need for human...

    Read More

  • The Benefits of Human Cloning

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Benefits of Human Cloning In recent years, many new breakthroughs in the areas of science and technology have been discovered. A lot of these discoveries have been beneficial to the scientific community and to the people of the world. One of the newest breakthroughs is the ability to clone. Ever since Ian Wilmut and his co-workers completed the successful cloning of an adult sheep named Dolly, there has been an ongoing debate on whether it is right or wrong to continue the research of cloning (Burley).

    Read More

  • Stem Cell Therapy

    1020 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...there are some risk factors in using stem cell for therapeutic approaches, hematopoietic stem cell therapy by bone marrow transplantation has already been proofed to be safe if donors’ background and screening, cell contamination, HLA matching and opportunistic or nosocomial infections during immunocompromised period were carefully monitored and controlled. Still, other types of stem cell therapies, despite of their good therapeutic efficacy, are remain in experimental stage and need more data to support and demonstrate the safety in clinical trials. More understanding of stem cell biology is also required in order to keep stem cell under controlled and avoid some complications that they might cause. So, to pave the way for successful stem cell therapy, research in this extent is needed to pursue to maximized therapeutic efficiency with highest safety in patients.

    Read More

More about Stem Cells Advantages And Disadvantages

Open Document